The dramatic global trend of population growth has led to a rapid urbanisation, resulting in unprecedented land cover change. The incarnation of accompanying developed has typified impermeable surfaces. These surfaces have disconnected the stormwater component of the natural hydrological cycle, disregarding it as a nuisance and designing it to be rapidly removed from urban areas. Utilising Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) offers opportunities in urban areas to recycle the water and challenge the perception that stormwater is a nuisance and of no value. The current context of drought experienced by Cape Town has highlighted the need for less reliance on surface water resources; implementing SUDS could be a way of reconnecting the hydrological urban water cycle. It could also help to repair the human disconnect from nature that is prevalent in urban areas. The research question explored the role of spatial planning in enabling the implementation of SUDS in the City Bowl, Cape Town. While conceptual and technical frameworks have been developed for SUDS in South Africa, at present there is no spatial guide as to how these interventions could be realised in a specific context and area. This research utilise s the tools of spatial planning to re-imagine the City Bowl in relation to water. The case study methods used, enabling a detailed understanding of the site. This was complemented by interviews with various planning professionals in order to understand the current role spatial planning plays in terms of implementing SUDS. The research suggest is that whilst SUDS has many constraints, the opportunities that they provide for improving water quality and quantity, and surrounding amenities, suggests that this is one which has to be embraced if the City Bowl is going to respond innovatively and sustainably to the drought. It also highlights the need to improve coordination across different spheres and departments of governance, and emphasises the need to value local community knowledge. A prevalent silo approach to complex problems is no longer acceptable. The implications of the research are that implementing SUDS in the City Bowl requires planners to embrace a water literacy approach to spatial plans, and in doing so, return the focus to water

No / It is now well accepted that there are significant challenges to realizing the wide-spread and self-sustaining implementation of sustainable urban water management. It is argued that these challenges are entrenched within the broader socio-political framework, yet often unsuccessfully addressed within the more narrow scope of improving technical knowledge and design capacity. This hypothesis is investigated through a comparative analysis of three independent research projects investigating different dimensions of the water cycle including stormwater management in Australia, and sanitary waste management and implementation of innovative technologies in the UK. The analysis reveals significant and common socio-political impediments to improved practice. It was evident that the administrative regime, including implementing professionals and institutions, appears to be largely driven by an implicit expectation that there is a technical solution to solve water management issues. This is in contrast to addressing the issues through broader strategies such as political leadership, institutional reform and social change. It is recognised that this technocratic culture is inadvertently underpinned by the need to demonstrate implementation success within short-term political cycles that conflict with both urban renewal and ecological cycles. Addressing this dilemma demands dedicated socio-technical research programs to enable the much needed shift towards a more sustainable regime.

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The author examines effective urban water management as a means to promote sustainable development and achieve water sensitive cities. A qualitative method is utilised in the collection of data through document studies, desktop analysis and a literature review. A review of the current national and local water policies and approaches within South Africa, and more specifically Cape Town, indicated the need for a coordinated, systems based and holistic approach to urban water management. Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is considered as an alternative approach to urban water management in Cape Town to build resilience among local communities against the threat of drought and flood events, and promote sustainable development in moving toward a water sensitive city. A model for implementing WSUD in the context of limited resources and capacity within local municipal departments is considered. Incorporating the principles of WSUD within spatial planning initiatives to implement this approach and catalyse a systemic transition in urban water management is considered and assessed in a case study of the proposed development of the River Club. The case study considers a bottom-up approach to transforming urban water management and the capacity of WSUD, when implemented through spatial planning, to simultaneously address multiple objectives including those of sustainable development and those contained within national and local policies. The benefits of a WSUD approach for all are considered. Many if these benefits are as a result of reduced pressures on municipal infrastructure and increased water resources accrued as a product of the proposed implementation model. The implementation model proposed creates conditions in which municipal resources and investment can be redirected to promote equitable water resource and service provision distribution throughout the city. The model is proposed to effect a transformation in water policy, institutional structures and water resource management to reflect the principles of WSUD in a manner which is cognisant of the various limitations inherent to the City.

Nothing can exist, live, survive or thrive without water. Water is the basis of life for all living organisms and the centre of life for all societies. The global attitude around water has become territorial as it encompasses an intricate link to the development of nations. Centralising main water supplies beyond urban boundaries may have improved the utilisation of water but has also resulted in the separation of society and water. Water is what gave rise to the city of Cape Town, as there was an abundance of rivers and springs located on and around Table Mountain. This water was first used by the Khoi people and became the reason for colonial settlers residing in the Cape. The City is currently experiencing the worst water crisis in over a century due to increased temperatures and decreased rainfall. Amid the water crisis there appears to be underused, freshwater below Cape Town's CBD, flowing to the Atlantic Ocean via the stormwater reticulation system. This water originates from Table Mountain's rivers, streams and, to an extent, springs. Naturally, the drought has sparked widespread concern for, and attention given to, water and its sustainable usage. This dissertation explores the ways in which the City's water, environmental and spatial planning policies could spark a new and improved water-culture within Cape Town to ensure sustainable, long-term water availability. This is done through investigating the potential of Oranjezicht in becoming a catalytic area for water sustainability due to the locations of the Field of Springs and the Platteklip Stream. This dissertation proposes using water sensitive urban design as well as integrated, collaborative partnerships and management mechanisms to encourage an improved urban water culture.

The energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with urban water systems have come under scrutiny in recent times, as a result of increasing interest in climate change, to which urban water systems are particularly vulnerable. The approach most commonly taken previously to modelling these results has been to consider various urban water system components in great detail, but in isolation from the rest of the system. This piecewise approach is suboptimal, since it systematically fails to reveal the relative importance of the energy consumption and GHG emissions associated with each system component in the context of the entire urban water system. Hence, it was determined that a new approach to modelling the energy consumption and GHG emissions associated with urban water systems was necessary. It was further determined that the value derived from such a model would be greatly enhanced if it could also model the water consumption and wastewater generation associated with each system component, such that integrated policies could be developed, aimed at minimising water consumption, wastewater generation, energy consumption and GHG emissions concurrently. Hence, the following research question was posed: How should the relationships between the water consumption, wastewater generation, energy consumption and GHG emissions associated with the operation of urban water systems be modelled such that the impact of various changes to the system configuration made at different spatial scales can be determined within the context of the entire system? In this research project, life cycle assessment ideas were employed to develop such a new modelling methodology. Initially, the approach was developed at the building-scale, such that the end uses of water present in a selected building and any associated appliances could be modelled, along with the fraction of the citywide water supply and wastewater systems directly associated with providing services to that building. This vast breadth of scope was delivered by considering only the operational life cycle stage of each urban water system component, excluding both the pre- and post-operational life cycle stages of the associated infrastructure. The value of this pilot model was illustrated by several case studies, focused on residential buildings connected to the centralised water supply and wastewater systems in Melbourne, Australia. Later, the approach was extended to the city-scale by using probabilistic distributions of each input parameter, such that all of the end uses of water present in a city, and all of the associated building-scale appliances could be modelled, along with the associated complete water supply and wastewater systems. The value of this city-scale model was illustrated by applying it to model a hypothetical case study city, resembling Melbourne, Australia in many ways. Due to a lack of data, this application was limited to the residential sector of the case study city, along with the fraction of the citywide water supply and wastewater systems directly associated with providing services to that sector. The results generated by the pilot and city-scale models showed that the new modelling methodology could be employed at a wide range of scales to assess the relative importance of each modelled urban water system component in terms of the specified results. Importantly, the high resolution of those results enabled the identification of the underlying causes of the relative importance of each urban water system component, such that efficient and effective approaches to reducing each result for each system component could be developed. Interestingly, for the specific case studies investigated, it was revealed that some commonly neglected system components were actually extremely important, such as domestic hot water services, a trend found to be largely driven by hot water consumption in showers.

This research deals with urban water reuse planning and management modeling in the context of sustainable development. Rapid urbanization and population growth have presented a great challenge to urban water resources management. As water reuse may alleviate pollution loads and enhance water supply sources, water reuse is being recognized as a sustainable urban water management strategy and is becoming increasingly attractive in urban water resources management. An efficient water reuse planning and management model is of significance in promoting water reuse practices. This thesis introduces an urban water reuse management and planning model using optimization methods with an emphasis on modeling uncertainty issues associated with water demand and water quality. The model is developed in conjunction with the overall urban water system with considerations over water supply, water demand, water distribution, water quality, and wastewater treatment and discharge. The objective of the model is to minimize the overall cost of the system subject to technological, societal and environmental constraints. Uncertainty issues associated with water demand and treatment quality are modeled by introducing stochastic programming methods, namely, two-stage stochastic recourse programming and chance-constraint programming. The model is capable of identifying and evaluating water reuse in urban water systems to optimize the allocation of urban water resources with regard to uncertainties. It thus provides essential information in planning and managing urban water reuse systems towards a more sustainable urban water resources management. An application was presented in order to demonstrate the modeling process and to analyze the impact of uncertainties.

This research deals with urban water reuse planning and management modeling in the context of sustainable development. Rapid urbanization and population growth have presented a great challenge to urban water resources management. As water reuse may alleviate pollution loads and enhance water supply sources, water reuse is being recognized as a sustainable urban water management strategy and is becoming increasingly attractive in urban water resources management. An efficient water reuse planning and management model is of significance in promoting water reuse practices. This thesis introduces an urban water reuse management and planning model using optimization methods with an emphasis on modeling uncertainty issues associated with water demand and water quality. The model is developed in conjunction with the overall urban water system with considerations over water supply, water demand, water distribution, water quality, and wastewater treatment and discharge. The objective of the model is to minimize the overall cost of the system subject to technological, societal and environmental constraints. Uncertainty issues associated with water demand and treatment quality are modeled by introducing stochastic programming methods, namely, two-stage stochastic recourse programming and chance-constraint programming. The model is capable of identifying and evaluating water reuse in urban water systems to optimize the allocation of urban water resources with regard to uncertainties. It thus provides essential information in planning and managing urban water reuse systems towards a more sustainable urban water resources management. An application was presented in order to demonstrate the modeling process and to analyze the impact of uncertainties.

The provision of water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure is an essential ingredient of cities. However, questions are being raised about the type and form of urban infrastructure, for economic and environmental reasons. Traditionally these techologies have offered linear solutions, drawing increasing volumes of water into cities and discharging waste at ever increasing levels, causing escalating stress on the environment. In addition the costs of water infrastructure provision and replacement, both in the developing and developed world, is becoming prohibitive. In response, a new paradigm has been called for and new solutions are emerging that have been labelled as Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM). This concept can be considered to consist of both technical and philosophical dimensions, and represents a new form of professional praxis. However, the adoption of these techniques and concepts is constrained by the inertia of the existing urban water systems. It is therefore argued that the introduction of any change must occur across a number of dimensions of the technoeconomic system of the city. These dimensions-artefacts and technical systems (i.e. the technology and knowledge systems), professional praxis and socio-political context (i.e. institutions, culture and politics) and biophysical realities and world views (i.e. the environment and underlying values) - provide a framework for analysis of the change process - both how it is occurring and how it needs to occur. This framework is used to illustrate the link between environment values and the process of technological innovation, and points to the need for the emerging values and innovations to be institutionalised into the professional praxis and socio-political context of society. Specifically, it is argued that a new form of transdisciplinary professional praxis is emerging and needs to be cultivated. A broad review of the literature, an evaluation of selected emerging technologies and three case studies are used to illustrate and argue this position. These examples show the potential economic, social and environmental benefits of IUWM and provide some insight into the potential which this approach has to influence the form and structure of the city and at the same time highlighting the institutional arrangements required to manage urban water systems.

With an ever-increasing population and global warming, fresh water resources are nearing depletion resulting in a global water crisis. As a consequence, cases of drought have been reported worldwide especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to climate change, urbanisation adds strain to infrastructure as well as water supply and the management of water resources. As a result, most developing countries are faced with a water management challenge. There is thus a need for a paradigm shift towards an Integrated Water Management (IWM) approach. Worldwide, countries have responded to the Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) concept through the implementation of various management strategies; with Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) emerging from Australia. Some closely allied management strategies in response to IUWM emerged in the USA as Low-Impact Development (LID), in the UK as Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), and in New Zealand as Low-Impact Urban Design and Development (LIUDD). Namibia is situated along the south-west coast of Africa and is considered the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa. It is characterised by a semi-arid environment, with more than 80% covered by desert or semi-desert. The country is regularly afflicted by drought and has fluctuating and unreliable rainfall patterns, often accompanied by high evaporation rates. The City of Windhoek, as the capital city, the biggest municipality and also the largest densely populated town in Namibia, is faced with an ever-increasing shortage of water for its inhabitants. For close to 50 years, the water scarcity situation has led to direct waste water reclamation for potable re-use in Windhoek. Other measures implemented by the City of Windhoek (CoW) towards IUWM include Water Demand Management (WDM), Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) and Water Conservation (WC). In order for Windhoek to transform into a Water Sensitive City, the implementation of WSUD is imperative. Although the CoW has implemented measures towards IUWM, more options still need to be explored in order to contribute to IUWM processes and to ultimately become a Water Sensitive City. This research was aimed at conducting a comprehensive review of existing WSUD practices within the CoW and identifying gaps pertaining to WSUD implementation. The research confirmed, via a review of relevant literature, that the implementation of WSUD mainly flourishes when documented policies and regulations drive implementation. To review WSUD implementation in the CoW, this study followed a qualitative research approach by gathering data via online questionnaires using the SurveyMonkey platform. To validate the survey outcomes, structured interviews were conducted with selected survey participants to gain more insight into the outcomes. For the data collection, the study targeted a sample of managers and specialists from the three departments within the CoW that deal with urban infrastructure design and planning. A 72% response rate was achieved. The study revealed that there was a general understanding and knowledge of WSUD concepts among all the CoW stakeholders involved in water management, planning and design. This was mostly due to their academic knowledge and sometimes via exposure to existing WSUD practices within the city. Water Demand Management, Water Recycling, and Voluntary Green Roofs and Rainwater Harvesting were identified as existing WSUD options currently practised within the CoW. The study identified lack of capacity, lack of knowledge, lack of management support, a fragmented approach, the absence of policies and legislation, and no perceived financial benefits as barriers to WSUD implementation within the CoW. Based on the above findings, the study recommended that the City of Windhoek address existing barriers to WSUD implementation, increase awareness of WSUD within the city, secure government funding and apply for carbon credits to upscale the implementation of WSUD.